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Leadership

What it Means to Become Praesidium Accredited

Becoming Praesidium Accredited, What does it take?

Sexual abuse remains a serious issue that affects millions of vulnerable individuals each year, sparing no generation or demographic. As a result, expectations from stakeholders have never been higher. Now more than ever, communities, regulators, insurance carriers, and funders ask essential questions to drive long-overdue action. As a global community, every organization has an obligation to safeguard its consumers and the teams providing unparalleled programming and outreach.

Abuse prevention requires a robust, systems-based approach and a sustained commitment anchored in empirically-based best-practice standards. To better understand these concepts requires a broader and more profound look at an organization’s systems and the surrounding culture.

The Praesidium Accreditation Standards for Consumer Serving Organizations© are informed by thousands of root cause analyses, continuous scientific research and over three decades of field experience with thousands of organizations that serve children, youths, and vulnerable persons.  Anchored by the Safety Equation, these Standards and Praesidium Accreditation provide a framework to help organizations focus their efforts where we know it makes the most significant impact.

Accreditation Process

The Accreditation process has three phases.

Phase One: Implementation

During this phase, an organization implements Praesidium Accreditation Standards with the assistance of Praesidium experts. In addition, this phase includes the following steps:

  • Application: An organization submits an application, completes a discovery call, and signs a contract.
  • Self-Assessment:  An organization will complete a self-assessment of their organization using Praesidium’s Accreditation Standards.
  • Site Visit Preparation: An organization will prepare for the site visit by implementing Praesidium’s Accreditation Standards and submitting materials to Praesidium for review.

Phase Two: Verification

During this phase, Praesidium Accreditation Reviewers will complete a site visit, verify the implementation of its Accreditation Standards, and provide the organization with its findings. Additionally, the organization will continue to work through corrective action. This phase includes the following steps:

  • Site Visit: Praesidium Accreditation Reviewers complete site visit(s) to conduct interviews, review records, conduct architectural inspections, and observe programs to evaluate and verify the implementation of the Praesidium Standards.
  • Praesidium Report: Praesidium delivers a report to highlight any Standards that are not fully implemented and the steps an organization needs to take for corrective action.
  • Corrective Action: In this step, an organization will take corrective action to meet Standards identified as not fully implemented.

Phase Three: Accreditation

During this phase, an organization must show that it has met all Praesidium Standards set forth that it is maintaining them after accreditation is awarded.This phase includes the following steps:

  • Accreditation: Once an organization has completed corrective action, the Accreditation Committee will make a final Accreditation decision.
  • Maintaining Accreditation: Once an organization has been Accredited, it is expected to maintain implementation of the Praesidium Standards and complete an Annual Assessment each year.

An organization’s consumers and communities deserve the highest level of safety and abuse protection. Its team is a valuable resource that demands leadership and support to navigate daily challenges. Pursuing Praesidium Accreditation creates a pathway that aligns the organization’s mission and values with abuse prevention best practices while also providing access to best practices, written resources to strengthen prevention efforts, and consultation with our experts. Sexual abuse is a preventable risk, and together, we can make a difference.

To learn more about Praesidium Accreditation and download the Accreditation Standards, visit: www.praesidiumaccreditation.com or email Accreditation@PraesidiumInc.com.

Brooke Pratt
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